Sailing to Old Port Royal Roatan Honduras

We left Helene village anchorage at 1045hrs on Sunday 23 February. It was lovely and sunny which made the departure very pretty….

…. and easy as the shallows stood out clearly in the strong light.

View back towards Rose Island.  Helene village anchorage is off to the left of the picture.  The shallows around Rose Island are marked by lit pillar buoys (white with green stripe and green flashing light at night).  One of these buoys can be seen in the centre of the picture

The building second from right is Denissa’s Bar where we had spent a couple of hours the previous day

We had a good view of the village we had walked to the previous day….

Tommy lives in the house on the right

….. and we also spotted where Tommy lives as we sailed gently west along the coast.

Leaving St Helene behind us.  Guanaja is on the horizon on the right of the picture

It was a very pleasant gentle reach under genoa alone for the 5½nm passage to Old Port Royal.  Hardly one of our longer trips!

With the sun strong and high the gap in the reef stands out well in this picture

‘Wreck (conspic)’ as the chart says.  And it’s about the only useful
thing that our Navionics charts have to say about Old Port Royal.
Clearly the Royal Navy of Nelson’s era wasn’t based here!

We arrived off the gap in the reef at about 1140 and made our way in towards the bay with me on the bow, wearing polarised sunglasses, looking down into the water and keeping and eye out for coral heads and shallows.  Happily, whilst the entrance curves somewhat, in the good light it was clear to see the way and it seems to be clear of obstructions.

Old Port Royal – the only sign of habitation

In the bay itself, the water was cloudier and so it was more difficult to read the depth but we took it carefully and never saw less than 5m on the echo-sounder.  There were no other yachts and the only sign of habitation is the house and the dock on the north shore of the bay.  We saw a few people walking on the beach and on the dock during our stay but no lights in the building.  Apparently the land behind it is a failed farm, now a National Park.

Anchored close off Bailey Point Cay – positioned for the forecast strong southeasterly winds

With strong southeasterly winds forecast from the next evening, rather than anchoring off the beach on the Roatan side of the bay, we anchored in about 5m of water close to the island, Bailey Point Cay, that provides some of the bay’s protection.  There is a channel that runs inside the reef and inside Bailey Point Cay, through the mangroves up towards eastern Roatan and St Helene.  Water-taxis and pangas zip back and forth along this channel but tucked up close to the cay we were out of their way, with a lovely view of the beach, and yet able to keep an eye on all that was going on.  And, better still, unlike in the anchorage off St Helene where the traffic keeps going busily and at full speed until well after dark, we found in Old Port Royal that the boat traffic dropped almost right away as dusk fell.

Old Port Royal, Bay Islands, Roatan, Honduras